There are a number of actions that will be
implemented between now and 2021. High-lights include:

There will be a
careers leader for every secondary school, with funding attached equivalent to
£8k per school.

Building on the
pilot in the North-East, 20 “careers hubs” across the UK will be funded by
Government and supported by a coordinator from the Careers & Enterprise Company
(CEC).

The CECs role will
be broadened to promote all of the Gatsby benchmarks, not just the employer
encounters ones.

So what does this
mean for employers, especially those from STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering & Mathmatics) sectors? More than ever schools will welcome
support from local employers to promote their opportunities to their students
and help teachers with their understanding of the sector. Along with this,
there will be more opportunities to visit schools, interact with students,
offer placements and open your premises for visits. Going forward we will see
even more changes.

2018/19

New approaches to
careers provision will be tested and evaluated, to: encourage young people,
especially girls, to consider jobs in STEM; and to understand what careers
activities work well in primary schools;

Clear information
about T levels will be provided to parents, teachers, young people and careers
professionals

By end of 2020

All schools and
colleges will have access to an Enterprise Adviser. These are volunteers from
the world of work. If you’d like to know more please get in touch.

Schools should
offer every young person seven
encounters with employers - at least one each year from years 7 to 13 –
with support from the CEC. Some of these encounters should be with STEM
employers.

A new, improved
National Careers Service website provide a digital careers service to young
people as well as adults.

Government will
work closely with Mayors and Combined Authorities and trial approaches to
ensure local priorities inform provision of careers advice. Skills Advisory
Panels are being established in partnership with Mayoral Combined Authorities
and LEPs, to produce rigorous analysis of current and future local skills needs.

The strategy
mentions the STEM ambassador programme, World Skills and Year of Engineering as
ongoing successful work that Government is funding. I’ll be sharing more
information with you next week on the Year of Engineering. The new strategy
also references Engineering UK’s work with the CEC: “The CEC has funded over 170,000 encounters between young people and
STEM employers since it was established, investing in organisations like
Engineering UK, Greenpower Trust and Manufacturing UK. We will ask schools and
colleges to make sure that STEM encounters, such as with employers and
apprenticeships, are built into their careers programme by updating school and
college statutory guidance. This will make sure that all students, including
those who might consider a STEM career is not an option for them, start to
understand the range and benefits of careers and routes on offer.”

There is also a
commitment to supporting the simplification of the STEM careers landscape: “Government will assess the breadth and
effectiveness of current careers provision in schools and colleges on STEM,
including activities to inspire students to pursue STEM careers. We will
produce information about ‘what works’ and develop a toolkit for use in schools
and colleges, trialling new approaches where needed.”

It certainly looks
like there will be exciting developments in the future with employers, and
particularly with STEM employers at the heart of the work. The strategy places
real importance on employer engagement with students to help create the
workforce of the future who are informed, skilled and ready for work.

If you’d like to
explore how you can start your schools work in line with the strategy or would
just like to know more about some of the opportunities mentioned in the article
please do get in touch.